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This study addresses continuing concern over television's displacement of other leisure activities from both substantive and methodological perspectives. It examines past conceptualizations of the mechanism by which television is assumed to displace other activities. Following a critical review of the displacement literature, the authors examine data from an 8-year panel study of the introduction of television to South Africa and use a variety of methodological approaches to illustrate a major source of inconsistency in findings from previous studies. The displacement mechanism is found to be asymmetric in nature; that is, although increases in television viewing force out some other activities, decreases in television viewing do not result in parallel increases in levels of any of these activities. This pattern of findings was most pronounced in the case of radio use and movie attendance. Implications for conceptualization of the displacement process are discussed in relation to these findings.

A field study (627 children and 486 of their parents) tests the effects of family communication environment and parental mediation of television content on third-, sixth-, and ninth-graders' perceptions of the realism of television content and its similarity to real life and their identification with television characters. Interpersonal family communication helps children form real-world perceptions, which children intrapersonally compare with their perceptions of the television world better to assess realism. A mismatch between real-world and television-world perceptions diminishes perceptions of realism. Realism contributes to perceived similarity, which contributes to identification with television characters. Through active discussion of television content, the parent directly mediates perceptions of similarity, but not of realism.

Examines the development of children's ability to differentiate among informational, instructional, and persuasive television messages. Found high comprehension of narrative content even by the youngest children, but correct perception of message intent occurred primarily among older children. (PD)

Discusses two studies to teach children to be more critical of commercial appeals by showing them instructional films that teach how commercials attempt to persuade. Indicates that those who view the most television gain most from the films. (JMF)

This study explored 19 themes embedded in the lyrics of 1,040 U.S. top-40 songs from 1960 through 2010, using R strucchange software to identify trends and breaks in trends. Findings reveal both continuity and change. As in 1960, the predominant topic of pop music remains romantic and sexual relationships. However, whereas the proportion of lyrics referring to relationships in romantic terms remained stable, the proportion including reference to sex-related aspects of relationships increased sharply. References to lifestyle issues such as dancing, alcohol and drugs, and status/wealth increased substantially, particularly in the 2000s. Other themes were far less frequent: Social/political issues, religion/God, race/ethnicity, personal identity, family, friends showed a modest occurrence in top-40 music throughout the studied period and showed no dramatic changes. Violence and death occurred in a small number of songs, and both increased, particularly since the 1990s. References to hate/hostility, suicide, and occult matters were very rare. Results are examined in the context of cultural changes in the social position of adolescents, and more specifically in light of the increased popularity of rap/hip-hop music, which may explain the increases in references to sex, partying, dancing, drug use, and wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the influence of mass media on adolescents. Study entitled `The Myth of Massive Media Impact'; Examples using `Beverly Hills 90210' and Madonna's video `Papa Don't Preach'; Concern with sex and violence; Compromise on censorship and freedom of expression; Role of a teacher; Problem of controls.

The article focuses on the role of mass media in political socialisation. Family communication structure is conceptualised in terms of the degree to which the communication environment emphasises socio-orientaton and the degree to which it emphasises concept-orientation. Families stressing Socio-orientation encourage the child to maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships, avoid controversy, and repress feelings on extrapersonal topics. Families stressing concept-orientation emphasise expression of ideas and exposure to controversy. The article found that differences in engaging in politically relevant communication behaviours, and in at least one particular kind of political knowledge and political attitude are located by age, with older children more attuned to and sophisticated about politics. Similarly, there is evidence that these variables are somewhat affected by salient events such as an election campaign, although the influence of the campaign operates differentially as a function of age.

Three telephone surveys conducted during different phases of the Vietnam War (N=401, 199, and 299, respectively) were conducted to determine how changes in events and in sources' actions relevant to those events affect the perceived credibility of various information sources. Data linking four sources (students, the Stanford University News Service, CBS News, and the White House) to three issues (air pollution, unemployment, the war) indicate that ascribed credibility: (a) increased with the purported objectivity of the source, (b) decreased as the issue became more controversial, and (c) varied overtime as a function of the actions of the various sources and changes in events related to the issues. Results are discussed in terms of how changes in the environment located by major news events are related to changes in the ascribed credibility of various information sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional equivalence theory was applied to a study of eighth graders contrasting recreational users and intellectual users of computers in terms of academic performance and use of other media. Recreational users, who play video games frequently, were the heaviest television viewers and performed the most poorly at school. Intellectual users, who use computers for writing programs and for schoolwork, were the lightest television viewers and demonstrated the highest school performance; they were also infrequent leisure readers. Multi-users, who engage in both recreational and intellectual computer use, were the most infrequent readers. Low users, who seldom or never use computers, were the most frequent leisure-time readers. These findings suggest that computer use may be functionally equivalent to reading for some children and may be displacing time they would otherwise spend with print media. Future research using panel studies could examine whether the time spent with various media is actually changing as children gain access to computers. This study also finds that different factors are associated with amount and type of computer use. By amount of use, frequent computer users have the most access to the technology and are the most infrequent readers. By type of use, intellectual users are the most academically motivated and the least frequent television viewers, while recreational users are the least academically motivated and the most frequent television viewers. Keywords: children, adolescents, mass media, reading, television, computer use, video games, computer programming, functional equivalence, attitudes, academic motivation, self-efficacy, computer access. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on the influence of mass communication on individuals. Growth in the trend in amount of television viewing; Changes in the general patterns of children's exposure to news programming; Evidence of a decline in daily newspaper readership.

The paper examines the issues underlying the debate over television commercials directed at children from the perspectives of both the proponents and opponents of regulation, drawing a distinction between what research can tell us about the consequences of children's exposure to commercials and value judgments about those consequences inherent in making policy decisions. Following a brief review of empirical studies concerned with the general impact of commercials on children, the paper turns to a closer examination of research concerned with developmental changes in children's processing of and responses to commercials. It argues that the persuasive nature of the commercial renders it a special case which children do not fully understand until the age of about seven years. Strategies that might increase children's understanding of the nature of commercials, hence might moderate the impact of commercials, and that can be employed in the school, in the home, or via television itself, are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the impact of television viewing on academic achievements. Intercorrelation of reading skills, television viewing time and reading time; Influence of out-of-school media use on reading achievement; Assumptions on television viewing.

Assesses the role of information theory in communication research. Relationship between source and destination; Technical characteristics of transmission channels; Aspects of information theory.